


Sleepover

by Lwoorl



Series: DC Shifters AU [8]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Gen, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling, Sibling Bonding, Sleepovers, Transformation, shifters au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 01:38:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16844536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: Damian has a nightmare. Set during Dick's time as Batman.Shifters AU: See notes of the series to learn more, but all you need to know is that some people can turn into objects and they're called shifters.





	Sleepover

**Author's Note:**

> More words! Yay!

Damian repositions the grip on his sword. The handle is hot against his skin, and he's covered in sweat. He's also getting tired, the smell of sulfur and steel start sticking to his clothes, suffocating him.

The sky changes to green and the next sacrifice steps forward, a woman with white hair, her face indistinguishable from the rest of her skin. Damian moves and stabs her on the chest.

He takes out the sword and the body falls to the ground, making a splash sound against the water, then disappearing under the surface. The water gets a bit more red.

The sky goes blue. Damian repositions himself, ready to bring the next execution. The sky changes to green and the next person steps in.

Blue, green, step, stab, splash, blue, green, step, stab, splash, blue, green, step, stab, splash, blue, grip, green, step, stab, splash, blue, green, step, stab, splash, blue, green.

He moves without thinking, and it's only as his sword penetrates the chest of the next person in line he sees the man's face.

Damian freezes, a block of ice traves inside him, forming in his throat and then falling all the way until permanently resting at the toes, making his soles feel cold.

Everything seems to stop, his legs feel weak, blue eyes and a smile looking at him, the sword deep into the flesh. He lets go of the handle and takes a step back, shaking.

The man with the sword through him falls to his knees and sinks into the red ocean, Damian reached to take his hand on instinct, but it just slips between his finger. The body disappears under the tinted sea.

He stares into the darkness as the sky goes blue, then green, and the next person in line steps forward.

Damian looks up, a black man with horns and bat wings is looking at him. He looks like a shadow, barely a silhouette with white eyes. He tries to reposition his grip but there's no use, the sword went away with… With… The man he stabbed, that was… Who?

The sky turns red, and the sound of an alarm breaks in the distance.

The shadow man screams and attacks, Damian is barely able to dodge in time, and as he stands up he sees the line of bodies behind the figure break ranks and run towards him.

He takes a step back and gets into a defensive position when a hand breaks through the surface, grabs Damian's ankle, and he's drawn into the sea.

It's hot and smells like rotten flesh. Damian opens his eyes, blinking against the red liquid and he sees the bottom of the ocean.

A pile of corpses, all looking up, reaching for him.

On the top, a man with blue, dead eyes stares. He's the only one who isn't moving, dead, rooting, and it's only then that Damian realizes who it is.

Damian wakes up with a startle, panting and sweating. He extends one hand, turns on his bedside lamp, and finds himself inside his room at the penthouse.

A dream. Of course, just a dream.

He takes deep breaths until his heart calms down, then turns off the light and lies on his bed.

He turns around, lying on his side, then again, so he's facing the ceiling, then turns again, his stomach against the mattress, and again, on his side once more. This continues for a while.

Finally he just covers his head with the blankets and brings his legs against his chest. He closes his eyes and starts falling asleep-

_Richard Grayson's empty eyes looking at him, dead by Damian's hand_

He sits up and groans, hiding his face between his hands.

What is wrong with his brain tonight?! Nothing even remotely bad happened today, hell, nothing actually bad's happened in the last two weeks! It isn't any special date either, the book he's been reading this week is about art history, and the only movies he's watched lately have been fucking _Disney_ because Grayson won't let them watch anything else until they finish them all!

Wait, maybe it _was_ Disney, they watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame yesterday.

Doesn't matter! Damian looks at the ceiling, trying to think of something else, but he can't get the feeling of those blue eyes out of his skin.

He sighs. He gets out of the bed and walks out of his room.

It's stupid and childish, but Damian knows himself and how his mind works. If he had a dream about someone dying, seeing they're alive should shoo the uneasy feeling away. So he goes to Grayson's room and opens the door, knowing he will find the man sleeping with his head at the foot of the bed and all his limbs twisted in what shouldn't be a comfortable position but somehow works for him.

The bed is empty.

He refuses to actually worry, Grayson probably just went to take a glass of water or something.

He goes to the kitchen, then looks in the bathroom, then living room, but Grayson isn't anywhere.

He goes down to the bunker, but once there he can see, even from the elevator's door, that no one's around.

Just in case he checks the vehicles, all of them are still there, and the Batman suit is where it's supposed to be.

Probably nothing, he repeats to himself, probably nothing's wrong, but he can't help but worry.

He rides the elevator again and stands in front of Pennyworth's room. “This is stupid” he tells himself. After just a moment of hesitation he knocks.

“Master Damian? Is something wrong?” The butler asks, opening the door in his pajamas.

“I can't find Grayson!” He exclaims, and it's only when the words come louder and quicker than he meant to that Damian notices he might be a bit upset.

He clears his throat and tries again. “I mean… Hi, Pennyworth, do you know if Grayson left to do something tonight? I can't find him.” Much better.

“I see.” The man answers, not looking worried in the slightest, but then again, Damian has a hard time reading him “I gather you have searched the whole penthouse.”

“And the bunker too!”

“Master Damian, have you tried looking in the supply closet where we store the Batman equipment?”

“The su- Why would I look there?”

Pennyworth sighs “Master Richard's always had the rather unfortunate bad habit of shifting to sleep with the equipment.”

“As a grapnel?!” Damian exclaims. Why would _anyone_ want to sleep like that?!

“Indeed.”

Damian huffs, well, at least some of his anxiety turned into exasperation just now.

“I assume you will go look for him there.” He asks. Damian nods. “If you wish, I can accompany you to look for Master Richard.”

“No, it's ok.” He shakes his head. “I can find him myself now that I know where to look.”

“As you please.” Pennyworth grins “Now, if you allow me, I will go back to sleep.”

“Yeah. Sure… Goodnight.”

Damian goes back down to the bunker and enters the supply closet. It's a 5x6m room where they store several of the stuff Batman needs, mostly basic things that don't need to be contained anywhere special such as ropes, smoke pills… Grappling hooks.

He doesn't turn on the lights inside, since his intention is still just checking, not actually waking him up. Supposing Pennyworth's right and Grayson's really sleeping in such a place… The man's done weirder things.

He leaves the door open, guiding himself by the light leaking into the little space, and starts looking.

He finds Grayson with the other grappling hooks, resting on the floor under the shelf with the gas masks. He's easy to recognize, his design might be similar to the other ones they use, but he's the only silver one.

Alright, status of aliveness checked. He can go back to bed now!

Except… He can't actually _know_ he's alive by just looking. It's stupid, but the nightmare from before still lingers in his mind, so he puts one of his fingers on top of the metal.

It's warm. Damian feels something untangle in his chest. Ok, mission accomplished! He should sleep fine now.

He's about to start retreating towards the door when-

“Dami? What are you doing here?”

The unexpected voice makes him jump a little. He turns around and sees Grayson, sitting right in front of him with the grappling hooks, hunched under the shelf, with bed head hair and a cowlick.

“Nothing that concerns you.” He replies. Grayson raises an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Right.” Grayson looks at him as he passes a hand through his hair in an inane attempt at taming it. “Really, why are you here kiddo?”

“I was… Looking for something.”

“Without turning on the light?”

Damian feels his face heat up and bolts towards the exit, but before he can run away a hand grabs his arm.

“Hey, now.” Damian tugs, but Grayson doesn't let him go. “Tell you what, since you're already here why don't we sleep together?” He cheerfully asks.

“In a supply closet?! Believe it or not I'm not as crazy as y-!”

“Come on, it will be like a sleepover!”

“Are you brainde- Ah!” Grayson pulls from his arm and pulls Damian into a hug. He tries to kick him but the man doesn't let him go.

“Come on, it will be fun.”

“Tt. Just because you like sleeping in the floor doesn't mean we all do!”

“It's comfy!”

“How?!” Damian throws his arms up. “It's hard and cold! It's the opposite of comfort!”

“It gets comfier if you shift.” He can't see his face but Damian swears he can _hear_ the man pouting.

They stay in silence for a moment, and Grayson's hold begins to weaken, Damian's about to try again to break free when-

“I know you had a nightmare.”

He freezes. What. How did he “What are you talking about?” It comes more as a whisper than the exclamation he wanted. Pathetic. Damian bites his bottom lip.

“You always do that, checking on me or Alfred when you have a nightmare.” Grayson says, resting his head against Damian's back. “You always stand at the door, looking like you want to go inside, and then go back to your room. I'm sure Alfie noticed too.”

Damian's face gets burning hot with embarrassment. They weren't supposed to know that! No one was supposed to notice! Oh God how long have they know?! They never seemed like they knew! No one was supposed to know that!

“I used to do that too, you know?” Grayson continues, and Damian feels his train of thoughts almost physically come to a halt.

“What do you mean?”

“I would do that, stand at Bruce's door when I had a bad dream, thinking about climbing on his bed, but I never did.” He sighs “... I wish I had, now that he's gone.”

Damian's shoulders relax. He brings his legs towards his chest and rests his chin on his knees. He still doesn't get it, how Grayson is able to speak about his father so freely. Damian still can't.

There's a beat of silence, and then Grayson goes on. “I used to share a bed with my parents, back at the circus. Our trailer was tiny so I always wanted to have my own space. Then they died and I got my own room at the manor.” He feels more than hears Grayson laugh “Not worth it, lemme tell you that.”

Damian nods “I used to sleep with my mother before coming here, not always, but, usually…”

“Mhm. It sucks getting used to being alone at night, doesn't it?”

“Tt. I'm not a kid.” He replies, but there's no fire to it.

“Sure you aren't.” Grayson snorts. “Listen, I'm not gonna force you to do anything, but if you ever want _not_ to be alone after a nightmare, you can. I promise I won't tell anyone.”

Damian closes his eyes “You promise?”

“I swear.”

“I will sleep here but only because you want it so badly!” He exclaims as he moves to a cross legged position. Grayson ruffles his hair. “...If you tell anyone I _will_ kill you.”

“Only Alfie will know.”

“Tt.”

He imagines heat, his body turning burning hot, until it melts and its shape shifts. He uses the same thing for both changes, and back before he died his father told him it was a good thing, that it should make it easier for Damian to become good at shifting. He's been practicing, now he can do the whole cycle in four seconds, but he never got to show him.

Grayson hasn't changed, even though Damian already did. Instead the man stands up, and Damian is about to shift back to yell at him when he sees he just went to close the door. Then he sits next to him and in a blink of light he shifts too.

It's… Well, he still thinks ‘comfy’ is an exaggeration, but the hardness and the coldness does bother him less like this. And somehow being unable to move, but knowing he isn't trapped… It's a bit smoothing. He's always had to twist and turn in his bed for almost an hour before catching some sleep. This way it's easier, he realizes.

He can't exactly feel Grayson's presence, even though he's right beside him, but at least he knows he's not alone. If one of them could breath it would actually be pretty nice.

At the end he falls asleep fairly quickly and dreams it's his birthday. His mother sneaks him warbat be kishta from the kitchen and he doesn't have to study all day. His father is also there, he plays video games with him and lets Damian talk for hours. It's a good dream.

He wakes up the next morning with Grayson nudging him with his foot. “Little D, it's morning! Wake up!”

He shifts to human and stretches. This is the first time he spends so much time as a thing, he had thought he would be sore, but it's a nice surprise to find out he isn't.

“Come on, let's go catch breakfast and hope Alfred isn't mad!” Grayson exclaims as he pushes Damian towards the elevator. He frowns.

“Wait, why would Pennyworth be angry?!”

Grayson gives him a sly grin. “He's always hated when I sleep like this, he will hate that you're catching my bad habits.”

“I didn't catch anything!” Damian argues. Because he didn't! He just slept like that because Grayson asked! “I only did it once!”

“Whatever you say kiddo.” He smiles and ruffles Damian's hair as he pushes the bottom to call the elevator “Whatever you say.”

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason I adore fics with Damian having a nightmare and then cuddling with Dick, I could write like a thousand of similar but different fics about that if it wasn't because I have self control tbh 
> 
> As always remember to leave comments, I love getting feedback, any feedback, it can be a short one, don't be shy!!!
> 
> Also remember you can always send me prompts to [my Tumblr](http://lwoorl.tumblr.com), it can be for this AU or just about anything, or just shot me a message anytime, I swear I don't bite!!


End file.
